Some patients told me before that we medical professionals are just taking that profession because of money.. NO It's not.. But it's one of the reasons and I can put that as my last reason. First reason will be, to know the importance of life.. We cant feel it unless we can saw our patient's life are in trouble.. I can take care more of myself now cause I know already what will be the consequences if we'll have some bad vices.. Someone told me that we are lazy, because we are treating them for just 1 hour and we let them go back tomorrow.. common fellow PTs let's show them that we care..

This makes me mad. Most PT's and PTA's go into this field because we care about people and want to assist in their road to recovery and function. PT's and PTA'S spend more time with a patient than any other medical professional!

Some patients told me before that we medical professionals are just taking that profession because of money.. NO It's not.. But it's one of the reasons and I can put that as my last reason. First reason will be, to know the importance of life.. We cant feel it unless we can saw our patient's life are in trouble.. I can take care more of myself now cause I know already what will be the consequences if we'll have some bad vices.. Someone told me that we are lazy, because we are treating them for just 1 hour and we let them go back tomorrow.. common fellow PTs let's show them that we care..

There's always a few miserable people out there that will complain about everybody, personally I feel sorry for them, they will never be happy.

They majority of people do appreciate what we do, even though they don't always tell us. We're highly respected in the medical system.

Come on now... I'm in the profession for the money. It CAN be both ways, ya know?

Shoot, I entered this profession because 1) being an athletic trainer was too narrow focused and the writing on the wall, in my opinion, was there wasn't going to be many opportunities staying an athletic trainer 2) athletic trainers work too long of hours 3) I could make more money as a PT 4) I could work LESS and make MORE. (the only problem is that reimbursement patterns didn't go the way I had expected back in the late 80's early 90's, so we aren't making as much as we should be....)

That doesn't mean that I don't give 100% of myself to patients and do my best... but geesh, financially it was a no brainer - I'd get more financial return investing in a PT education AND I could have the lifestyle I wanted.

Bottom line is that unless you work for non-profit or hospital that has PT only b/c it has to, it is a business and the money does matter. It should matter to some degree even for non-owners as your SW&B and the ability to continue to provide those 1 hour high quality treatments depends on the revenue stream coming in and keeping net revenue per visit above total cost per visit. This gets tougher every year with cuts in reimbursement in about every state and higher operational costs each year. Profit margins in PT are some of the lowest in the business field and there is little room for error. 3 CMS CCI edits a day will cost a clinic $25K annually. Not undertanding CPT definitions can cost an average clinic > $50K annually.

I think 99% of us got into PT due to the satisfaction derived from patient care and loving that healer label. Unfortunately, there is a lot going on at most state levels and at the national level that are against the PT profession so the money topic has to be included.

Revisiting this. I echo SJ's sentiment. I started PT school after trying the intern route for becoming an ATC and after being a graduate assistant strength coach. i weighed my options of 3 years of work vs 3 years of PT school and figured out that PT school trumped the working in terms of financial reward.

don't get me wrong, I love what i do, but I also really like the money and financial rewards.

Who says this that Physical Therapist's Are Lazy..??? It is not true.PT are one of the active people around us and Physical Therapy is the field where laziness is not allowed.So don't consider this rumor that they aye lazy.